Clip from 1994 documentary about racism

What are the challenges and what are the opportunities we face in a time when some people are saying that if a black man can be elected president we have become a postracial society? How do we encourage white people to take responsibility for challenging specific forms of white privilege built around issues of land, labor, education, housing, and self-identity? Letís move beyond generalities about racism and white privilege and move into responsibility for addressing concrete issues of racial justice.

I've given up trying to explain. I've lost friends because of this issue - some folks simply don't get it...I was friendly with a co-worker who called herself a liberal. But the longer we worked together, the more I saw how clueless she was about race. She thought because she traveled a lot that she had a lockdown on race relations, but in a lot of ways, she was no less racist than a lot of the people she accused of being racist themselves.

"To be [black] in this country and to be relativity conscious is to be in a rage almost all of the time." ~ James Baldwin

^Yeah, I know. That's the problem of looking at it from the outside in. They just never had to experience it in person, let alone on a daily basis. And if you're a light skinned person of color like myself, in some ways it is even worse. As soon as racism becomes a topic of discussion, all of a sudden they claim they had no idea you are a person of color. Really? When just a short while ago you addressed me with "You people or you (and then the ethnic background they think you belong to) have that great spicy meat, what is it called again? Can you give me the recipe?" And when later you tell them you didn't like being addressed like that, they often say stuff like "I didn't even know you were (enter ethnicity). You are so white and you have blue eyes!" Yep, and my facial features do not at all prove I am not caucasian <rolling eyes big time>. I always tell my darker colored friends and relatives they, in a strange way, are lucky to be dark enough to be able to point out racism because they have a bigger chance of being believed.